Strengthening farmers organizations: the journey of participants from 6 African countries through knowledge and innovations

9th
October 2017, Nairobi - Kenya

Procasur Africa's Learning Route: Linking smallholders to commercialization Practices: The case of Farmers Organizations in the Kenyan dairy sectorbrought together 21 participants from 6
different countries implementing six different IFAD funded projects - Cameroon
(Agricultural Development Support
Project-PADFA) and Du Conseil d’Administration), Kenya (Smallholder Dairy Commercialization
Programme, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries),
Malawi (Sustainable Agricultural
Production Programme and Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water
Development), Rwanda (Rwanda Dairy
Development Project-RDDP and Nyagatare Dairy Farmers Union-NDFU),
Ghana (Rural Enterprises
Programme-REP)and Madagascar (Program for Vocational Training and Improvement of Agricultural
Productivity-FORMAPROD and Malagasy Dairy Board MDB). Each country
bringing diversity and innovative analysis to play. Thanks to the structure of
each group, bringing a mix of project
staff, government representatives,
leaders of farmers organizations and
small scale farmers the participants had the opportunity to see the two case
studies from the Kenyan dairy sector through a variety of analytical frameworks.

During a
Learning Route participants get together in a practical and interactive
setting that promotes direct and active learning, and allows the host country,
in this case Kenya, to share
their best practices, innovative tools, techniques, and approaches as they
promote smallholder commercialization initiatives. During the past week, the
different IFAD funded projects put all their analytical focus on dairy value
chains, and how the host organizations have successfully contributed towards
integrating smallholder farmers into commercialization through the cooperative
model. Through a mix of both theory (workshop presentations) and practical
field experiences from selected cases in Uasin Gishu and Nyandarua counties of
Kenya each participant had the
opportunity to look at the different innovative possibilities for their own
projects.

In Kenya the participants will have the
opportunity to use different analytical knowledge management and team building
exercises from which they will not only
take t the theoretical outcomes but also the knowledge of how to work in a
group towards innovative outcomes. On
day one they were taken through an induction process where together with
Procasur they established the learning
objectives and had the possibility to be introduced to the whole team.

The morning was opened by a distinguished
guest, Dr. Kiptarus: Director of livestock production: State
Department of Livestock Kenya. Who welcomed the participant to the Learning
Route. During his opening speech he
provided the group with key highlights about the dairy sector in Kenya.
Dr kiptarus key points included his
emphatic remarks about commercialization
of agricultural activities as the engine of economic development in Africa
and particularly in Kenya given that smallholders farmers constitute 80% of
marketed agricultural products. His speech
also gave the participants important facts about the dairy sub-sector and its rapid growth while reminding them that the current
growth does not match the projected demand for dairy products. Mr Kiptarus also
made a call for innovative approaches that will guarantee transformation of the
dairy sector from subsistence farming
to viable sustainable commercial
oriented enterprises. This was the first speech of the morning and it already set the tone for participants to think deeper about farmer organizations and how if
they are run efficiently through systems
that will link smallholder farmers to commercialization they can be the engine
of agricultural development.

Currently, the government
of Kenya is investing in promoting production, production efficiency, and
sustainable use of land resources and creation of market linkages for
farmers. By doing this, the government has put in place interventions that
focus on policy and regulatory environment, strengthening of farmer
organizations, increasing of livestock productivity and increasing market
linkages for milk and dairy products.

During
the first day Gerald Katothya introduced himself as the technical coordinator
of the Learning Route. Gerald described the Learning Route process as a
platform that exposes participants to practical aspects of a process with the
aim of understanding what makes it work and learn from it. The Learning Route
in Kenya aims at improving the understanding of the visiting participants on
how to strengthen farmer organizations capacities aimed at integrating
smallholder farmers into commercialization modes. This goals are to be achieved
through activities and tools like the case analysis framework. Which is to act
as a guide for understanding the
internal organization and governance structures of farmer organizations and
other coordination mechanisms that link farmers to commercialization, dairy
commercialization service delivery models and interventions applied by dairy
development programs to strengthen farmer organizations.

Already
before lunch all participants found themselves involved in an interesting dialogue with Norbert Tuyishime. Norbert shared the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation
(EAFF)experience as a regional
farmer organization engaged in policy and political dialogue processes. The EAFF
supports its member countries through apex farmer organizations to participate
in discussions around regional policies and protocols, participation in
agricultural budget analysis processes and influencing on the regional trade policies and standards.

Catherine
Kilelu, Project Manager for the Wageningen University 3R project in Kenya, was
able to share with the participants of the Learning Route 3R’s experiences and
their trade and investment approach to commercialization of the dairy sector by
supporting dairy smallholder farmers to conduct farming as a business,
integrate farmers into markets and strengthening the competitiveness and
sustainability of the smallholder farmers. 3R also promotes the adoption of
dairy technologies. She noted that, though the Kenyan dairy sector is very
advanced compared to peers in the region, it still faces by a myriad of
challenges and so there is space for
innovations. Some of the challenges Katherine mentioned include: high cost of
production, milk quality and safety issues, gender and social exclusion and
climate change, among others. In order to build entrepreneurial capacities for
dairy smallholder farmers 3R believes there is a need to: develop relevant
business models, develop youth led dairy models, develop dairy business models,
develop quality based milk payment system, establish practical training centres
and promote low emission resilient production systems. The model is also
advocating for the promotion of technologies that are promising for both the
youth and women.

Procasur as an organization
that acts as a knowledge broker for the South and its main mandate is to
identify best practices and facilitate knowledge sharing. During the Learning
Route, Procasur expects the participants to share experiences and learn from
the Kenyan cases through a process of analyzing the innovative solutions and
evaluating them against what is applicable in their context. The ideal is to
establish together with every team what can be adopted and adapted when back in
their countries.

The
learning Route participants first destination was Kinangop (Nyandarua county)
in the central region of Kenya each IFAD funded project was called to present their projects, share their
experiences on the LR topic and their expectations of the training through an
activity called the experiences fair.At the end of the session ,many
participants shared how, for them, the value of the activity is in discovering
how the challenges affecting smallholder farmers in Africa are often similar
and crosscutting in the region. Often revolving around high cost of production,
climate change, and challenges with accessing finances, lack of training, poor
infrastructure among others.

In
this Learning Route where all participants are members of IFAD funded projects,
each project was able to communicate to the different countries the efforts
IFAD is making, in collaboration with other partners and including respective
country governments, to contribute to poverty reduction, food and nutrition
security. Common and cutting across interventions include among others:
capacity building and training, adaptive research, commercialization, market
linkages creation, capacity enhancement in good agricultural practices and enhancement
of competitiveness

Finally,
we want to share some of the main expectations that were expressed by the
participants of the Learning Route during the first day of our journey through
knowledge:

Sharing of experiences and establishing reasons for success and or failure with the
case studies

Understanding
some of the sustainable funding mechanisms for farmer organizations in Kenya

Understanding
the process of reducing the cost of production at farmer level

Understanding
how farmer organizations in Kenya deal with governance and management issues

Gaining
an understanding on how farmer organizations were being supported through public private partnerships

Gaining
an understanding on the innovative approaches used by framer organizations to ensure their growth and sustainability

Finally,
understand how farmer organizations are organized in Kenya achieving effective
service delivery to members including facilitating the access to markets and
marketing allied complementary activities.

PROCASUR,
the participants and the hosts of the LR
are committed to facilitate and contribute during the next days to the activities and the development of each
country's innovation plan allowing the
lessons learned in Kenya to be adapted and replicated in different countries
and contexts.